1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a method and a system for determining affiliation of foreign payment card holders (e.g., students) with domestic educational institutions (e.g., universities and colleges). In particular, the present disclosure relates to a method and a system for assessing the relative degree of proximity of the residential geolocation of the one or more foreign payment card holders and the geolocation of the one or more domestic educational institutions to facilitate determining whether the one or more foreign payment card holders are affiliated with the one or more domestic educational institutions, and also for assessing purchasing and payment behavior of the one or more foreign payment card holders at one or more domestic merchants.
2. Description of the Related Art
As more and more foreigners are now living in the United States, either on a temporary or permanent basis, there exists an opportunity for domestic merchants to market to this large segment of the population. In particular, there are more and more foreign students now studying at United States educational institutions (e.g., universities and colleges). As such, there exists an opportunity for domestic merchants to market to the foreign students as well as to nurture a potential retention of these students as future customers.
For many domestic merchants, there is a lack of specific metrics and understanding of their foreign shoppers (e.g., foreign payment card holders particularly students) residing in the United States. As a result, the ability to better serve the foreign shoppers in terms of language and culture of the foreign shoppers for specific stores/merchants can arise. Moreover, there can be missed opportunities to attract additional foreign shopper spend by further understanding of the overall foreign shopper profile in terms of advertising and planning.
Domestic merchants have an interest in knowing, for their particular geographical area, where foreign shoppers residing in the United States are coming from and what they are buying. Information useful to such merchants can include, for example, where foreign shoppers are coming from; whether foreign shoppers are spending more or less in a particular area/place/industry in comparison to a competing area/place/industry and, if so, how much; what foreign shoppers are spending on including which industries and merchants; when foreign shoppers are buying and what times foreign shoppers are buying; whether there is seasonality involved with the foreign shopper trade in a particular geographical area; and the like.
With such information, a domestic merchant, for example, can focus advertising towards certain countries to increase foreign shopper flow and transactions. To appeal to potential foreign shoppers from the most popular countries of origin, a domestic merchant can enhance the foreign shopper experience with language, customs, food, brochures, and the like, for those particular popular countries. Also, such information would allow domestic merchants to plan according to foreign shopper arrival seasonality at a particular destination site.
Promoting and marketing expenses are often one of the largest cost categories for a merchant. Promoting and marketing difficulties in effectively capturing and reaching the correct population of shoppers, is an industry wide challenge, regardless of shopper destination sites or the goods or services offered. In an attempt to overcome these difficulties, entities often engage in various promoting and advertising techniques to a broad shopper audience hoping to reach interested shoppers. However, such broad promoting and advertising techniques are often ignored by potential shoppers, or fail to reach the intended shopper audience.
Information on potential foreign shoppers can be very important to sellers of goods and services. Domestic merchants benefit from having detailed information about buying interests or capacities of potential purchasers of goods or services. If a domestic merchant, for instance, can identify and selectively promote or advertise to those potential foreign shoppers who fit a profile of probable purchasers of the domestic merchant's goods or services, the domestic merchant can reduce advertising costs by advertising directly to those potential foreign shoppers. In other words, if the domestic merchant has both information about potential foreign shoppers and more targeted access for its messages, it can achieve more foreign purchasers/customers for the same amount of money. Useful financial and demographic information for such a strategy includes a potential foreign shopper's financial status, age, residence, and interests in various goods and services.
If a domestic merchant has access to such financial and demographic information about a potential foreign shopper, the domestic merchant can selectively market to the more promising foreign shoppers for a decreased expense per sales transaction. The money saved by the domestic merchant can, potentially, be used to reduce the price of the good or service to the foreign shopper. Instead of advertising to the masses of potential foreign shoppers, the domestic merchant can concentrate on specific potential foreign shoppers who may be likely to visit a particular destination site or to buy a specific good or service and/or offer a favorable pricing.
Using relevant data, foreign shopper activities and characteristics typically provide an effective form of targeted marketing by creating an experience that is personalized and relevant to the foreign shopper. However, targeted promoting and marketing systems are often limited to accessing only a specific set of data that provides less than a holistic view of a foreign shopper's spending habits and preferences.
Businesses and merchants are constantly seeking ways to operate in an environment where they are able to deliver promotional and advertising messages and offers to their target audience at the opportune time. For many, the best time for reaching potential foreign shoppers is at a time when the potential foreign shopper is online website browsing for shopping opportunities at a particular destination. At other times, the most ideal scenario for a foreign shopper to receive advertisements and offers is when they are physically at the destination. In such instances, there is a need to provide targeted advertising messages and offers to foreign shoppers at the right place, to enhance the sale of goods and services to potential foreign shoppers.
Therefore, a need exists for a system that can provide a more effective form of targeted promoting or marketing to foreign shoppers particularly foreign payment card holders (e.g., students). A more holistic view of a foreign payment card holder's personal circumstances, including education, spending habits, country of origin and associated language and customs, is needed for effective promoting and targeted marketing. Further, a need exists for a system that can analyze a foreign payment card holder's personal circumstances and identify shopping activities and circumstances that can represent an opportunity for a domestic merchant to offer products or services to the foreign payment card holder, and that are specifically tailored to the foreign payment card holder's upcoming need or desire, as well as communicate the offers to the foreign payment card holder.